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Teach A Teacher 2013: Writeup

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Teach A Teacher ParticipantsTeach A Teacher is part unit of study, part conference. Hosted at HLYIS this year, the event featured students from ICHK, and teachers from JIS, HLYIS, ICHK and ESF Kindergardens.

The aim is for students to work in groups to prepare and deliver professional development sessions for teachers. Students develop their abilities in presentation, communication and collaboration. Teachers get to learn new skills, and see education from the other side of the desk:

“I could sense that the students loved the topics they taught and it showed in their enthusiasm. Made me think of how my students see me when I teach.” – Participating teacher

And students start to understand what life is like for their teachers.

“This activity helped the students to know a teacher’s role and what it is like for their teachers. The interaction between teachers and students was great.” – Participating teacher

During ICT classes, students spent time devising, naming, imagining and planning their sessions. They presented to each other, to themselves, and to a few teachers too. Their work was filmed and reviewed by themselves and their peers. Over 9 lessons of 70 minutes each, groups polished, improved, refined and rehearsed. They strove to be imaginative, creative, clear and professional. On the day, all were nervous, but at the same time they managed to channel their energy into doing a great job. At times, they modeled current best-practice in the classroom:

“I think this group of boys were exceptional in their preparation and communication. I loved how hands on it was and they let us learn by doing.”

Relieved to be finished, students commented on how happy they were, and how much they enjoyed their experience. But, as is the way with technology, not everything went to plan:

“I really enjoyed the Teach A Teacher event. I have experienced that being a teacher is not that easy, you need to plan out the lesson really carefully. I noticed that I should always plan about what would you need to do when you’re having technical difficulties.” – Charlie Yau, Year 7 Student

Asked how they found the experience of being taught by students, teachers reported the following:

“It was a very good learning experience both for students and teachers. I enjoyed it a lot.”

“Loved the fun aspect of the presenter that used the sword in place of a pointer!”

“Great! I learnt a lot and felt very comfortable with the students teaching me. The best thing about this is that I can ask silly questions and not be laughed at!”

This is an event which will definitely be repeated, and hopefully expanded, in 2014. Please feel free to email me if you wish to receive information about next year’s event, either to come as a learner, or to enter student teams from your school.

PD

Teach A Teacher

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Teach A Teacher is a brand new student-led conference for teachers. The aim is to help teachers improve their ICT skills, whilst exposing students to a new classroom perspective. All schools are welcome, but places are limited. To register, email rparker@ichk.edu.hk. Click on the image below to see a larger version.

Teach A Teacher

Session Details

The table below gives details of the material on offer at the Teach A Teacher conference:

Session 1 – 14:45-15:30

Teachers Lesson Name Blurb
Evan, Mike & Julian Media Search Made Easy Learn how to search for interesting media (videos and music) easily, including advanced techniques to search in more detail. Then learn how to use this media to make your teaching more exciting. Discover why your students like playing video games so much!
Alan, Henry, Ernest, Felix & Clement Sharing Is Caring Blogging is a powerful way of sharing and communicating ideas, and is a great way to share ideas with your students and follow teachers In this lesson we will be teaching you how to blog with WordPress. This will include embeding media, which allows you to include multimedia content within your site. You will also get homework from this lesson.
Matthew, Fabian, Randall & Angus Keynote Awsomeness In this workshop we will be teaching you how to utilise Keynote. You will learn how to use themes, fonts, effects and media. We will ensure that you will learn something new!
Alison Hauka & Nick MovieTUBE The combination of iMovie and Youtube can be awesome! Find a film, download it, insert it to iMovie…then do what you want with it! And you know what else? You will learn to use green screen to put yourself in your favorite film? Your dreams can come true!
Julia, Jessie, Iris & Chloe The Adventures of iMovie The Adventures of iMovie is all about learning to convert DVD’s to MP4, so you can play them without the disk or use them in iMovie. As well as some challenges to complete, there will also be a quick but fun contest which will be done in pairs. There is even a prize for the winner!
Charlotte, Bonnie & Hillary Tips and Tricks For Mac Beginners We are going to share some tips and tricks for beginning Mac users, including desktop, Mission Control and folders. The session will be practical, so you will have lots of changes to try what you are learning.
Ingrid, Jasmine & Stephanie Computer Security Girlz We are offering a lesson on how you can improve security on your computer, including choosing strong passwords and keeping your passwords safe and more.
Charlie, Pepijin & Jacky Garageband Music Remix In this workshop, you will learn how to make music remixes. This involves putting a few songs you like together in one piece, and can be used to entertain and excite your students.

Session 2 – 15:35-16:20

Teachers Lesson Name Blurb
Sean, Sam & Christopher MYTC 123 Making YouTube Channels 123: We will teach you the wonders of making a YouTube channel, while finding out how to use YouTube as a learning resource. You will be amazed of what YouTube can do. We will teach you why your students love YouTube so much, and how to use other videos legally in your own.
Harvey, Steven & Max Chrome In A Nutshell This lesson is all about Google Chrome, and how it can make you a better user of the web. You will learn new, helpful tips and will have fun! Please bring your computers to the lesson.
Caelan, Naomi, Emily, & Jheny Mysteries of Dragonframe Dragonframe is stop motion animation software, and it allows you to make fun, interesting videos with your students. We will show you what it can do, and how you can use it.
Izzy, Marie & Gianna Remarkable Remix In this lesson you will learn an interesting new way to teach your students: remix! We will teach you how to use iMovie to make a remix, which is a mashup of videos, photos, and music. We will guide you step by step through the basic skills required tomake a remix.
Pepijn & David System Preferences for Dummies Learn how to fix your projector problems, change the language of your computer, zoom to show things clearly to the students and more. Have a better knowledge of System Preferences than your students.
Nikki, Maria & Charlie Google Forms for Beginners Forms are perfect for all questionnaires, online quizzes, and more! This workshop will help you learn about Google Forms, an easy to use system for getting information from others. You will be able to make your very own a form within the lesson, and who knows, you might learn to make a quiz mark itself.
Brandon, Brian & Nicolas Learning Made Fun With Scratch This lesson is about using Scratch to make students interested in your lessons. Using this application, you can help your students to make educational games, learning about maths and much more.
Mason & Julius Image Editing using Acorn In this lesson you will learn to create and edit images in Acorn: a free (for schools) image editor for Mac OS. Images are a great way to interest your teachers in what you are doing in class.
Lessons & Units

Teach A Teacher (Mac Edition)

This unit starts with assumption that students are better at ICT than teachers, and that the teachers at your school need help. Students work individually but collaboratively to learn about various aspects of the Mac (both hardware and software). This information is then used to populate a pre-structured wiki, essentially creating an online manual for others to use. At the end of the unit, students need to work with a partner to line up a two-on-one session where they help a teacher to improve their ICT skills by using the wiki. I recently ran this unit simultaneously with 60 11-12 year old Y7 students, and they adapted to the collaborative nature of the wiki fantastically. At the end of the unit, when they had all taught their teachers, I received excellent feedback on their performance from my colleagues. It also got them really thinking and talking about the computers they use every day, and what they can do with them.

The material below should be all that you need to deliver this unit at your school: